Suspect in Bay Area In-N-Out rant faces hate crime charges – SFGATE
A suspect who was heard on video making racist and homophobic comments and using a homophobic slur to two Asian customers at In-N-Out has been arrested, officials said Monday.
San Ramon Police Department said it arrested a 40-year-old Denver man Monday after a viral TikTok video filmed Saturday appeared to depict the suspect verbally harassing Bay Area locals Arine Kim and Elliot Ha, who were recording themselves eating at the fast food restaurant.
“Are you guys filming yourselves eating?” a man is heard asking the friends in the video, which had nearly 14 million views as of Tuesday afternoon. “You’re weird homosexuals.”
The recording is focused on Kim and Ha for its entirety, minus a short clip when the camera turns to a man pouring himself a drink at the soda machine. After that shot, the man’s comments toward Kim and Ha become even more hostile and later threatening.
“Are you Japanese or Korean?” the man asks in the video. “I’m Korean,” Ha replies. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. You’re Kim Jong Un’s boyfriend, huh?” the man can be heard saying. “Normally, I could spit in your face, that’s some Filipino s—t.”
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The man is then heard using a homophobic slur. Kim told KNTV that she grew apprehensive when the man said to meet him outside and reportedly tried to intimidate them with a prolonged stare. Kim added that she and Ha sat inside the In-N-Out restaurant until closing time and asked the staff if someone could walk them to their car for safety.
“We happened to handle the situation relatively well, but had it been anyone else, had someone actually wanted to fight, had someone been older than me or weaker than me or whatever it might be, it is really heartbreaking,” Kim told KNTV. “I think that reality really sunk in for me, especially just kind of watching it back on the video.”
San Ramon Police Department launched a criminal investigation following the Saturday incident. On Twitter, San Ramon police Chief Denton Carlson asked the public to help identify the suspect who was photographed after a different person reportedly witnessed “similar behavior” from the individual.
On Monday, the suspect was found and arrested on suspicion of two counts of committing a hate crime, San Ramon Police said in a press release.
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